Your Cousin is Evil
by Charged Lightning
Summary: Sir Leon can't help but notice the uncomfortable exchanges between the new visitor and Merlin. It is time to bring this to Arthur's attention. Post season 4. Crack. One-shot.


Your Cousin is Evil

Sir Leon can't help but notice the uncomfortable exchanges between the new visitor and Merlin. It is time to bring this to Arthur's attention. Post season 4. Crack. One-shot.

Disclaimer: I don't own _Merlin_

* * *

"Sabrina!" Arthur exclaimed. "Long time no see!"

"And you!" Sabrina laughed. "It's been far too long, my dear cousin. I see you've grown into the type of leader your father would be proud of." She then gave Arthur a hug, and, while he couldn't see, twisted her lips in an all-too-familiar smirk.

This, however, did not escape Sir Leon's notice. Suddenly, memories of Morgana and Agravaine flooded his mind. He now remembered having seen that expression on their faces before. And when he saw that expression, usually….

He snapped his head to Merlin, and sure enough, there was that familiar death glare, directed straight at Sabrina. Now, he noticed that her eyes were locked hard with Merlin's as well.

Then she and Arthur broke the embrace, and her face returned to normal. Arthur continued smiling, as if nothing had happened.

Leon looked frantically around the room, trying to see if anyone else noticed. Everyone seemed to be smiling, having not noticed the uncomfortable exchange at all. Were the people really this oblivious? Surely they couldn't all be. He had at least always thought Gwen to be the observant sort. His gaze landed on the queen, and sure enough, her were eyes darting nervously back and forth between Merlin and Arthur's cousin. _Yes_! So she had noticed too. He listened as they continued their greeting.

"You are welcome to stay here in Camelot as long as you like," Arthur spoke.

She smoothed out the sleeves on her midnight black dress. "Thank you."

"I'm truly sorry that Camelot has not fully recovered yet from Morgana's last takeover. The castle, however, has mostly been restored. All except for some minor work on a ceiling that was somehow hit rather hard. Anyway, my manservant can give you a tour."

Leon noticed a brief flash of annoyance on her face. "Yes, of course," she responded.

"And, as you are my cousin, any advice you wish to offer the council will be welcome," he added.

She looked Arthur in the eyes and gave him a sweet smile. "I can assure you that I am honored to help a Pendragon in any way." She then let her long, dark brown hair fall over her face slightly as she turned to face Merlin, giving him another smirk.

Leon quickly looked back to Merlin, and sure enough, he was glaring daggers at her.

"Everyone is now dismissed." Arthur stated. Everyone began to file out of the room, as if nothing happened. Sabrina and Merlin kept their eyes locked on each other as they departed, neither one relenting in their malicious looks. The only other person remaining besides Arthur was Gwen, who looked troubled.

Leon confronted her. "Gwen," he started. She looked in his direction, "Did you notice…" he trailed off.

"Notice what?"

"Notice…" how was he supposed to say this? "The uncomfortable looks Merlin and Arthur's cousin were giving each other," he finally concluded.

"Yes, it was strange," she said, a frown forming on her face.

"It's just…" Leon hesitated. How could he accuse Arthur's family member of being evil?

"That every time someone starts smirking and Merlin starts sending them death glares, that person is usually trying to kill Arthur?"

Leon was astounded. She had come to the same conclusion that he had. "And," he added, "she is one of his family members. That places her in a category of people will a high incidence of wanting him dead."

Gwen nodded. "And did you notice her dress?"

Leon frowned. "What about her dress? It was a lovely…" realization dawned on him. "Black."

Gwen nodded once more. "We must tell Arthur."

Leon sighed. "Yes, I suppose we must." He paused. "Although, it won't be easy. He has trouble believing that any of his family members could be betraying him."

They turned to look at Arthur, who, being the king, who was still sitting at the head of the council table.

"Sire," he finally approached, "We have a very important matter to discuss with you."

"Well, what is it?" Arthur asked, looking up.

"It is ..." He hesitated. The words seemed stuck on the tip of his tongue. "We have reason to believe that … your cousin is betraying you."

Arthur's eyes widened and his mouth opened in shock. "And what evidence do you have to support this?"

"Well… she was smirking and Merlin was sending her death glares, sire."

Arthur's eyes grew even larger and his mouth opened wider. "You dare accuse my cousin, whom I've known my entire life, of betraying me, because Merlin was glaring at her?"

Now that Arthur put it that way, it did seem pretty ridiculous. "She was smirking too," he added feebly.

"Enough," he said. "You have been a very loyal knight, Leon, so I will let this slide. But if you accuse my cousin of being a traitor again, I would not hesitate to exile you."

"Yes, sire," Leon answered, quite nervously.

"Arthur," Gwen pleaded, "We both know you won't exile him, just like you wouldn't have exiled Merlin. But please look at the evidence."

"What evidence, Gwen?"

Gwen took a deep breath. "Every time Merlin has started giving someone death glares, they have turned out evil. And she is your family member, and, forgive me, but your family members don't exactly have the best track record of staying loyal to you," she added hurriedly. "And her dress is black."

A look of complete incredulity crossed his face. "How do you expect me to believe…"

Just then, the door crashed open, and Elyan barged in. "Sire, we're under attack."

* * *

Leon swung his sword at one of the mysterious black knights that were attacking. It remained unfazed. Great, another undead army. They were probably going to have to retreat. In all the confusion, he caught sight of his king. "Sire! We have to…" Leon stopped as he watched Arthur swing his sword at a knight and then watched the knight _explode_.

"Ha!" Arthur twirled around, exploding another knight, "This is easy, they just sort of blow up!"

"How…" Leon turned to fight off another attack, this time hoping that the knight would just explode. He stabbed the unearthly attacker and for a moment, waited in anticipation for it to explode just as the ones Arthur stabbed did. Instead, the knight shrugged its shoulders. _What is going on?_ As he was fighting off these knights that wouldn't die, he noticed Percival and Elyan struggling against them too. Actually, it seemed that Arthur was the only one who was managing to obliterate them.

Suddenly, Arthur stopped. Leon watched as his face turned to one of complete horror. He followed his gaze to see Sabrina holding a small, black box in her hand that was glowing. And sure enough, she was smirking. Then she turned and walked off behind another building out of their view.

Then Leon brought his attention back to reality just in time to see an immortal knight ready to land a killing blow on the still stunned king. "Arthur!" But before either of them could react, the knight somehow flew through the air and landed lifelessly in a loud clank. And then Merlin came out of nowhere and almost ran into him.

"Sorry," he said as he sprinted past.

"Where have you been? Merlin!" Arthur shouted. Merlin continued frantically running away and did not seem to notice him.

"Merlin! Damn it, I needed him for a good luck charm!" Arthur swung his sword and blasted another knight to pieces.

"A good luck charm, sire?" Leon managed to say between clanks of metal.

"Yes! That insanely" clank "unbelievable amount of luck" clank "that idiot always seems to have!" Crash! Another knight blew up and the debris rained down.

Suddenly, they heard an extremely loud explosion, and all the black, immortal knights shattered and their shards fell into a heap on the ground.

"How dare you try to cross me!" they heard a violent shriek from behind the building the sorceress had run off to earlier. "I am a High Priestess of the Old Religion!"

Just then, the sky began to rumble. The clouds darkened ominously directly overhead, and then, crack! A bolt of fierce lightning struck down, unrelenting in its fiery blaze. They heard an ear piercing scream, and then seconds later, the fiery blaze stopped. Rain poured out of the sky. In the next few moments, Merlin came running out from behind nearby building.

"What happened?" Arthur shouted through the downpour.

"You did it!" Merlin exclaimed, panting.

Arthur frowned. "Merlin, I hardly think that I did anything considering I have been over here and whole time."

"Oh. Umm…" Merlin rubbed his head in confusion. "The enchantment went wrong, and the sorceress sort of blew herself up."

"Ha!" Arthur thrust his sword into the ground in triumph. "With that lightning?" he asked.

"Ummm… yes?" he darted his eyes shiftily.

Then the mood changed and Arthur lowered his voice and said suspiciously, "And you were there?"

Merlin looked positively terrified. He nodded slowly.

"I knew it! See, Leon?" he leaned toward him and added quietly, "Good luck charm."

Merlin stood frightened for a moment then looked clearly puzzled at the exchange, but he seemed to collect himself and shrug it off.

"And why does there have to be this blasted rain?" Gaius said while storming out, accompanied by Gwen, and, oddly enough, glaring at Merlin.

Merlin stared blankly at him for a moment, then looked up around him as if noticing the rain for the first time. He gave a slight jerk then turned his head from Arthur and closed his eyes.

And then the rain stopped. "Impeccable timing, Gaius," Gwen laughed.

The physician smiled slightly at that and looked towards Merlin, who shrugged.

"Leon, Gwen... I have to admit that you were right," Arthur said, holding his head and turning away.

"So, you are going to start paying more attention to Merlin now?" Gwen chimed in.

"What?" Merlin asked worriedly.

"Yes, I'm afraid I might have to," Arthur continued.

"Why? What's going on?"

"Gwen and I noticed some things about you," Leon stated.

Merlin froze.

"Relax, Merlin," Arthur broke in, "From the look on your face you would think we were accusing you of sorcery."

At this Merlin's eyes went as wide as saucers and he fell over backwards. Hard. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"No, we noticed that every time you start glaring at my family members, they try to kill me."

Merlin slowly lifted his head. "Wha-" he began, confused.

"Gwen and I noticed that you were sending death glares toward Sabrina and she was smirking. We couldn't help but notice the similarity of the situations with Morgana and Agravaine," Leon explained.

"And this doesn't concern you, particularly," Gwen added, "but anyone wearing black is now suspect."

Merlin stared at them with wide eyes and his mouth agape. "Are you serious?" he blurted out.

"Definitely. Although it pains me to admit it, you do seem to have an uncanny ability-" Merlin jumped, and Arthur raised his eyebrows at him, "to know when people are trying to kill me. So, in the future, when there are visitors in Camelot, particularly my family members, first I will make sure they are not wearing black, and then I will watch you to see if you start sending them death glares and if they start smirking."

Merlin still looked incredulous.

"Now, you need to polish my armor and muck out the stables." The king grabbed his sword and walked off, bending down to pat Merlin on the head before he walked off.

"Ouch," he mumbled. He then turned his head towards Arthur, pure annoyance on his face. Slowly, he got up, shook his head, then walked off.

Leon couldn't help but feel like they were missing something very obvious about that situation. He looked over at Gwen, and sure enough, she had a curious expression on her face too.

Well, it worked last time. "Gwen," he started.

"Yes?"

"Have you noticed…how…" the words left him again. "Merlin..."

"Yes."

Wait. He hadn't said anything. "What?"

"I know what you mean. There is something odd about him."

Leon nodded. "But I have no clue what it could be."

"Lately, I've noticed that he always seems to be the only one around to tell the stories of these incredibly lucky escapes from magical attacks." She looked over to where Merlin had been lying on the ground earlier. "Quite puzzling."

"Indeed."

"And I have a feeling that it is so obvious we are missing it." She sighed. "I am afraid I am as in the dark as you are on this one, Leon."

Leon nodded understandingly as she turned to walk off with Gaius. He shook his head tiredly. He had already had one major discovery about Merlin. To think of anything else right now just seemed a little overwhelming.


End file.
